Sunday, March 25, 2007

Pandora's Hatch

From the file of things the U.S. mainstream media will probably never let you know about until it actually comes here, comes the "Baby Hatch."

This blog entry is not taking sides, only explaining what the Baby Hatch is:

The Baby Hatch (the actual coined name) is where parents, often single mothers can place a baby into a hacth at a participating hospital anonomoualy and the baby will be taken care of and put into a foster home. This is done by people who don't feel that they can take care of the baby.

The NHK has reported that this has been taking place in Europe in 6 unnamed nations, and Italy. In Italy last year, someone used a Baby Hatch. Although the hacthes had been in place for at least a year, they were never used. The Italian government has ordered more Baby Hatches as a result, hence the Pandora's Hatch becuase now that the box has been opened it can't close again anytime soon. Japan has started using the Hatches as well and at one hospital a hatch was used and the Gov. declared that to be legal.

Arguments Against: 1. It's abnormal 2. Its irresponsible 3. It makes the Gov. of the nation that uses it look like somewhat of a fool. 4. If the mother or father, who may not know that the Baby was put into the hatch can't claim it later.

Arguments For: 1. It can theoretically save a child's life if the parent would otherwise harm the baby. 2. Nobody wants a baby hatch, their installed out of necessity. 3. It would lead the mother to a potential abortion otherwise (I'm not sure about Europe but in Japan abortion is legal throughout the nation.)

6 Comments:

wow...that's interesting, Rob. Human babies becoming more and more utilitarian. How convenient is it becoming just to shove them aside? When we treat the smallest and most vulnerable members of our race like this, what implications does that have for society as a whole?

Actually, I went away and thought about it and, after my initial revulsion that a baby can be put into something called a 'baby hatch', I agree that at least it saves that child's life and perhaps provides another family the privilege of adding a child who will be wanted and loved.Excellent provocative post!

Currently, the majority of states allow a mother to just drop her baby off at a hospital. Whether or not someone puts an anonymous box for this desposit doesn't really do anything that isn't already acceptable in order to save babies that otherwise might be left in trashcans.